Hunted
by Antares700
Summary: SPEED is stuck in Antartica, bored out of their minds. Then some lost souls literally drop on their doorstep, and strange things start happening inside the base. Who's responsible? Third in my Sonic humans series, after Encounter and Holiday.
1. Chapter 1

_Bang!_

The door flew off its hinges like a flicked insect. A dark figure walked through the gap. The tight fitting cloak showed a lean, light male figure. The face was hidden below a hood. He walked with an air of power and confidence, not cocky but knowing what he was capable of. A similar figure, taller and with a greater bulk, but just as confident, followed him in. The room they entered was large and circular, like a royal chamber. The throne in the centre added to this feeling. The only things separating the medieval theme were the plasma screens that lined the walls.

"You know it wasn't locked," a voice said from the chair.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't roast you this instant," the taller figure threatened. His companion raised his hand to silence him.

"Now now brother," he soothed. "I'm sure the good doctor had a perfectly viable reason for his robots assault on us." He gave the back of the chair a hard look. "Don't you?!" The figure in the chair chuckled and swung round. He was fairly tall, with a pot belly, dark glasses, and a bald head that was a great contrast to his overly shaggy moustache. He wore a tailed overcoat and sensible black boots. Dr Eggman portrayed a very unique and unmistakable physique.

"Of course," he said to his guests. "I wished to see if you were genuine. With your level of skill, neither of you were in any real danger." The smaller figure nodded in recognition. It's what he would do in the doctor's position. "Now, is there a reason for this unannounced visit you two?" The first figure examined one of the screens. It showed a picture of a teenage boy, around 16, with dark, spiked hair with red highlights. He felt his own hair inside his own hood.

"Just a proposition," he said. "I believe you are still having problems with the GUN team, SPEED." Eggman gave a grunt of displeasure.

"Sonic and his friends are a thorn as always. But as I recall, they defeated you as well as me." The muscular figure snapped his head up.

"That's a lie. We weren't beaten!"

"You were tricked, by the emo Shadow." The figure raised his hand, creating a ball of magma. He drew back to throw it, but stopped as he felt metal against his head.

"My other robots may be a pushover," the doctor said calmly. "But this one is an exception." The figure tried to turn around, but the metallic feel became harder. The large figure extinguished the melted rock and the feeling on his back disappeared. He immediately turned round, but there was nothing there. Eggman addressed the smaller cloaked figure coldly.

"Well, that would be good, if I had any idea where they were. They're constantly being moved, too much controversy.

"They're in Antarctica," the figure threw a disc into the DVD player. Immediately, a map of the frozen southern continent came up, with many points marked out. "They're in one of these GUN training camps." He smiled at the doctor, hidden by the hood. "Think you can do something?" The doctor laughed a deep rumbling noise.

"I have just the thing!" he snapped his fingers. From behind his chair, an incredibly pale young male appeared. The figures didn't question why a human teenager was in the base of a mad scientist who obviously wasn't a child loving person, though the smaller one was slightly curious.

"What is it, my master?" the teenager said in a cold, mechanical voice, dispelling the cloaked figures questions without even knowing it.

"Collect up your brother and the spy," the doctor said. "You're going hunting!"

The Antarctica base had everything a teen could want: TV, clothes, Video games, training facilities. Everything, except space. The eight members of SPEED, Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Amy, Knuckles, Tails, Espio and Blaze, were literally falling over each other. Twice Amy had walked in on Silver and Blaze making out in some obscure room or another. On the vacation to Hawaii the month earlier, Silver and Blaze had finally started going out with each other. Of course, everyone in the team knew about it within hours, though the two had clung to some strands of secrecy for as long as they could. Eventually they'd given up any attempt to keep their relationship a secret, and now just put up with people staring at them. Amy was tripping over someone with every step: Espio meditating, Shadow sleeping or Knuckles doing push ups. And everywhere, constantly there were the sounds of Tails' power tools. _Bzzz! _She nearly couldn't take it. Nearly. There was only one high point.

Sonic couldn't hide from her.

Amy loved Sonic, and she knew he loved her as well, but he just couldn't handle a commitment. So he ran away. But she knew how he felt, and she knew that, if she kept pushing, he'd come round eventually.

They'd been moved to Antarctica after their last training facility was compromised. The computers had been ransacked for information. Many of GUN's high priority files had been found, including most of the training area locations. So they'd been moved to this location, which wasn't even finished. The barracks where they were supposed to live had a giant hole in the wall. So they were left sleeping on the floor of the gym and living room. Not the best.

The base was roughly circular, four levels in total. Though it was a GUN training centre, it also had research systems to study the icy ecosystem surrounding it. The basic layout of the centre was this: corridors surrounded a central chamber with a pool for swimming. A lab, workshop and medical bay were on the ground floor, which was actually two levels below the ice's top. Level one had the training systems, gym and relaxation area. Level two, the true ground, had the uncompleted living quarters, kitchen and a maze of corridors that seemed to have no reason. The top level had the observatory, computer and communication networks and a second living room. This may sound like a lot, but with eight teenagers, all this space comes to nothing.

So that's what was going on. The day started as the rest of the week had, with boredom. Amy had nothing to do. With the recent crackdown on security, no unauthorized calls were allowed, so she was completely isolated from the world she loved, the world of fashion and supermodels. Those around her managed to amuse themselves. Silver and Tails were playing chess, Knuckles and Espio were in the gym and Sonic and Shadow were going for a run. Who goes for a run in Antarctica?! Blaze, the only other girl in SPEED, was watching a documentary on volcanoes or something. Boring! Honestly, was she the only sensible one here? So she decided to sleep.

This attempt was interrupted by a sharp rapping sound. She groaned.

"Tails, shut off your stupid tools!" she yelled. Tails turned from his game.

"I'm right here Amy. How can I possibly be running the stuff in my workshop?" he turned back to Silver and moved. "Check." The sound came again, more urgent. Then Knuckles booming voice echoed from the gym.

"Is someone going to get the door?!" Of course, he'd stated the obvious that everyone else had missed. Someone was knocking on the main door. But who would be knocking at an unmapped station in the middle of nowhere.

"Sonic probably forgot his keys," Silver muttered. He wasn't going well against Tails, and his King was on the run. "Go get it Amy."

"Why should I get it?" she pouted.

"Because then you can hold it over Sonic to get a date." The moment the words left his lips, Amy sprinted for the door. He grinned broadly. "I'm just that good!" Tails moved his queen.

"Checkmate," he said triumphantly.

At the door, Amy was fumbling with the combination to the door. A date would be the first step in their relationship. And after that the next step could be even further. The desperate knocking came again. "OK, OK I'm coming Sonic!" she called. She punched in the last number and the door came open. Outside wasn't Sonic, but a giant man with blonde hair. He was wearing jeans and a red T-shirt, the only protection from the weather being a thin cloak covering his right side. Two more figures were over his shoulder, but Amy couldn't make them out.

"Assistance required," he said in a strange voice, part human and part robot. Then he swayed and toppled forward, nearly crushing Amy beneath him. She edged close to the strange intruder.

"Tails," she called. "We got a…AHHHH!" she screamed. She'd lifted the man's cloak trying to move him. Below it, where an arm should have been, was a massive, wicked, monstrous metal claw.


	2. Chapter 2

They moved the three patients to the infirmary, where Tails began examining them. There were three, two boys and a girl. One of the boys was thin with a torn jacket and shirt, torn jeans and long metallic blue hair. He had a gothic look to him, and was certainly not dressed for the sub-zero temperatures of Antarctica. There was something familiar about him, but he couldn't pinpoint what. The second was the giant who'd been at the door. The female was attracting most of the attention. She was hot, no other way to put it. She had tanned skin, blue liner and hair as white as snow. And her chest was one that attracted a lot of attention. Not that Silver cared; in his eyes he already had the most beautiful girl on the scene: Blaze.

"This technology is incredible!" Tails muttered. Multiple scanners were running over the giant's body, looking for injuries in the flesh and analyzing the metal. As they didn't know who these people were, Tails was using remotes to examine the patients. "This guy a complete cyborg, his right side is mechanics, but the lefts perfectly normal. His brain has multiple implants and the electronic pulse is still run by the heart. The meld between man and machine is flawless!" Tails was obviously impressed. Silver looked over his shoulder. A lot of equations were flying over the screen. He understood some of them, but most were far too complex for him.

"Any idea where they came from?" Espio asked. Silver, Espio and Tails were all in the examining room. Blaze was 'comforting' Amy, much to her distaste. Knuckles was still in the gym. All the visitors meant to him was that extra space taken up.

Tails shrugged. "No clue." Then Silver noticed something on the camera.

"Tails, zoom in." There was a symbol on the mechanical arm. A sort of arch. "Omega," Silver muttered. Espio looked at him blankly, but Tails understood.

"It's a letter in the ancient Greek alphabet," Tails explained. "You know, like alpha, beta, gamma and epsilon. I wonder what it means." Suddenly the door slammed and Sonic walked in.

"What's going on, what have I missed?" he said, loud and quick. Behind him Shadow walked up beside him.

"What blunt said," he glared at his overenthusiastic blue companion. They were both still wearing their warm suits for coping with the outside temperatures.

"Not much to say," Silver told them. "These three turned up on our doorstep, all unconscious. We've been trying to work out who they are," he gave a shrug. "Not much luck." Shadow went to the computers, activating another scanner. Sonic followed him.

"Watch'ya doing?"

"I'm scanning them for identification marks," he said, a hint of irritation evident in his voice. He moved the robot to the female, taking pictures of her face and exposed skin. Sonic grinned mischievously.

"How good's the camera on this?" he asked. Everyone could see what he was thinking.

"Pervert," Espio muttered in disgust. His values and Sonic's teen mind constantly came at odds.

"What did you say?!" Sonic raised his fists. Espio gave him a cold look

"Well if you'd clear your sick mind, you'd hear me better."

"Why you…!" Sonic got ready to charge, but was cut off as a noise came from the infirmary.

"Hey, can we come out of here?" Everyone, who'd been watching Espio and Sonic, snapped round to face the hospital. Inside, the smaller male was on his feet, showing no sign of his near death experience. He was looking around for anyone to answer. Shadow keyed the intercom.

"State name and your business here. You are trespassing on GUN property!" Silver thought he saw a smile cross the face of the blue haired boy, but it may have been an illusion.

"We're attempting to escape from Dr Eggman, I'm sure SPEED would give us assistance." Shadow's eyes widened and he shut off the comm.

"How the hell does he know who we are?!" he looked accusingly at Sonic, as if this had to be his fault.

"Don't look at me!" Sonic exclaimed. "I don't know them!"

"I believe I can explain!" came a female voice. The girl was standing as well, though a bit shakier then her companion. "My name is agent Rouge. I was infiltrating Eggman's premises, and I thought that saving Metal and Omega took priority." Silver snapped his fingers.

"That's where I know him from!" Shadow looked at him.

"Now who?"

"I thought I recognized that boy from somewhere! He was the one who was in charge in Hawaii, Metal Sonic" Silver took a closer look at Metal. "He's had an upgrade since last time!" Metal now looked less like Sonic and had more of his own appearance. "He didn't seem to be a prisoner there though."

"We'll need some sort of verification code, Miss Rouge."

"Of course. 8481234 is my security number." Shadow pointed to Tails, who typed it into the computer. There was a positive beep.

"It's a match," Tails declared. Shadow nodded.

"So can we come out?" Metal called. Shadow motioned for everyone to move outside.

"What does everyone think we should do?" Shadow asked.

"I say we trust them," Sonic said. Tails nodded his agreement. "They've just been through an icy hell, why shouldn't we trust them." Espio raised his hand.

"But half of them are robots remember. They can't suffer like us."

"That's racist Espio!" Sonic yelled. "How can you know if they have feelings or not?!" Espio raised his eyebrow. Sonic turned to Silver. "What do you say Silver?" Silver hesitated.

"I agree with you on the whole personality thing, but..." he looked round for some way to phrase his thoughts. "My gut doesn't trust this," he said lamely. "Metal Sonic's been upgraded, not something that happens after you let three prisoners escape and blow up a weapons depot. I say we do some digging before we let them out."

"So it's two against two!" Sonic said. All eyes turned to Shadow. He gave a full teeth grin.

"I like them; I say we let them out." Sonic wiggled his finger in his ear.

"I'm sorry, I lost you after 'I like them,'" Shadow cracked his knuckles against Sonic's temple.

"I'm agreeing with you, dolt!" He stalked back into the control room. Metal was leaning over the one called Omega, playing with some circuits. With a crackle, the big cyborg reactivated. His body jerked up violently, breaking a bit of the equipment above him.

"System reboot," he said. "Scanning all components for abnormalities." The big one's body vibrated as the scans checked the central nervous system. Metal smiled in satisfaction.

"Good to have you back, buddy," he said. Outside, Silver was surprised. He was certain Metal Sonic was a complete robot, but he still seemed to show emotion. Curious.

"OK, we've decided to allow you free run of the station," Shadow stated. "However," his tone grew sharper. "We must ask you too hand over all dangerous items." Metal saluted, grinning. "Definitely Sonic!" Shadow muttered.

Tails and Silver walked up to the communication room at the top of the compound. They'd have to report the three guests to GUN HQ.

"So, what's up with you?" Tails asked as they walked.

"Hmm?"

"Why don't you like them?" Tails asked again. "Usually you love new people. Why are they different?" Silver shrugged.

"I'm just suspicious, that's all. How do we know their stories genuine? They could be spies!"

"You've been spending too much time around Espio, you're jumping at shadows." Tails glanced back into the infirmary, three floors below. Espio and Shadow were searching Omega for weapons, piling any they found in an ever growing heap. He pointed it out to Silver.

"With that many weapons, why even spy? He could blow us all to hell!" Silver scratched his chin, puzzling. Something was still nagging at him. They finally stepped into the comm. room. It was a big room, one massive screen taking up an entire wall and multiple smaller computer screens. Tails punched in a code, connecting them to the main system. Cornel Rose's face appeared on the screen. He was a military man, straight backed and square jawed. His green eyes reflected his intelligence as his receding hairline showed his age. He was the commanding officer for SPEED, the one who organized their missions and their funds. He was also Amy's father.

"Tails, Silver!" he said, surprised. "Why are you calling?" Tails explained.

"We've got a bit of a situation here, sir. A group of droids have turned up," the Cornel jumped up, but Tails raised his hands. "They're not hostile! They claim to be escaping from Eggman. A robot, a cyborg and a human. One of them reports as Agent Rouge. Ring a bell?" Cornel Rose nodded.

"Rouge is our spy inside Eggman's base. We hadn't gotten a report from her in a while, and we feared the worst. Give me a description."

"Tanned skin, blue eyeliner, white hair," Silver stated.

"Hot?" The question struck Silver off balance.

"Err, well, um…" The Cornel smiled knowingly.

"I'll take that as a yes. What about the other?"

"One's Metal Sonic, the other I think was referred to as Omega." At the sound of Omega Cornel Rose nearly fell of his chair.

"Did you say Omega?!"

"Yes sir." The Cornal's eyes were wide.

"Omega is reported as Eggman's greatest creation, and his most dangerous!" he was obviously worried about something. "We'll send a response team to pick them up right away; it'll be there in a day or two." The connection was cut and they left.

"That was strange," Tails said. "I wonder why he's so scared of Omega."

"It also tells us that something is going on, something shady." Tails was getting tired of Silver's suspicions.

"OK, I'll make you a bet. If you're right, and something is going on, you get free run of the 'Whirlwind'." The whirlwind was one of Tails' precious aeroplane, a jet of unsurpassed speed and maneuverability. He never let anyone drive it unless they needed to. Silver was overjoyed, then suspicious.

"And if I'm wrong?" Tails smiled mischievously. "Oh no! No!"

"Come on!" Tails pleaded. "She doesn't even have to know!" Silver shook his head furiously.

"She'd find out, and then my life and yours wouldn't be worth a cent. We'd be in a burning hell, literally!"

"Fine, if you're wrong I get to experiment with your powers." That seemed reasonable enough.

"Deal!" As they shook hands, Knuckles rounded the corner. He and Tails are brothers, though you'd never guess it. Knuckles is big, muscular and proud of it, while Tails is small and lanky. What's more, Knuckles is thick headed and not that bright, while Tails is smarter than most supercomputers.

He came over and gave his little brother his normal greeting, a noogie. "Hey bro, what's going on?" Tails messed his hair back into shape. He remembered that his brother had stayed in the gym while everyone else was helping out.

"Well, we have three new guests for the next few days and…" Tails was cut off as Rouge walked round the corner. She was now taken of the environmental suit, and under she was wearing a skintight purple outfit that covered most of her skin, missing just a bit of her chest. Part of the suit had a pink corset-like area and she was wearing knee high boots. Heart shaped buckles belt was there also, but the items that were supposed to hang off them had obviously been confiscated. Her figure was even more impressive as she moved, and the suit was definitely meant to flaunt it.

"Anyone know where some food is?" Knuckles eyes were wide and his mouth was gaping.

"Ag..er aw err he dve," he tried to say. His tongue felt like lead and his face was red.

"Level two, north quarter," Silver translated. Rouge smiled.

"Thanks hon." She went past then, brushing up against Knuckles a bit too much. He blushed a shade deeper. After she'd left, identical grins crossed Silver and Tails' faces.

"That's enough Knuckles," Tails told his sibling, sniggering. Knuckles looked down, blushed even redder and ran out from. Unable to hold it any longer, Silver and Tails collapsed laughing.

"Idgits," Knuckles muttered.

After they'd been searched, Metal and Omega were allowed to look around the base. Omega simply went to the gym and began working his muscles. Metal, however began talking with Sonic.

"So you're who I'm based on," Metal looked him up and down. They were the same height, weight and their heads had the same sort of shape. Sonic grinned.

"I think so. Maybe the good doctor isn't as mad as we think." Metal nodded his agreement. "So what can you do?"

"I am capable of reaching mach 2 speeds, use any known weapon, fight unarmed in multiple styles, copy any type of battle tactic used by a potential enemy…" Sonic waved his hands in the air.

"Man we'd be screwed to fight you!" he exclaimed. "I'm surprised the doctor let you go!" Metal gave another smile, showing a row of sharpened metal teeth.

"He didn't. Let's just say there's a robot graveyard lying somewhere in the pacific." Sonic laughed.

"I like your style Metal." Suddenly Sonic stomach grumbled. "See ya later," and off he dashed. Metal waited until he was sure Sonic was gone, then let his smile turn into a snarl.

"Stupid fool!" he muttered. "Of all these people, I had to be based off that cocky fool!" He tapped the side of his head. "Come in Master. Operation is in action." Inside his head, Dr Eggman responded.

"About time Metal! What were you doing, making pleasantries?" If it was anyone else, Metal would have felt some sort of irritation from his AI, but Dr Eggman had programmed him to never feel anger towards him.

"A good trap takes time to set, my lord. So when may I strike?" Metal Sonic was anxious to begin. Such acts that the doctor had planned would give him some artificial sense of joy. Metal had soon discovered that the sense was addictive. He nearly understood why humans did so many things to harm each other; it gave them a false sense of power. Idiots!

"All in good time, my servant." Again, Metal's programming stopped any sense of anger towards the doctor. "We must make sure that my plan is foolproof. Make sure nothing can go wrong! Oh and there's an extraction team heading your way. Let Omega make sure they don't get here. Eggman out."

Metal Sonic looked at his hand, watched it slowly morph from an organic piece of crap to a deadly titanium claw. Oh yes, he was going to enjoy this!

**Same excuse as Chaos Keys, this is late because of my internet. Sorry people. Antares out.**


	3. Chapter 3

Omega was standing in the centre of a glade, surrounded by sapling oak trees and layered with thick grass. It was beautiful. But Omega didn't see the beauty, he saw the uses. The grass would soften a landing and the trees could be used as a weapon, if need be. All that was human had been erased at the prediction of battle. So he stood, waiting. Then his eyes caught sight of a rustling of leaves. His right arm came up, the wrist launcher that was hidden there revealing themselves automatically and firing rapidly. But the figure was already moving, circling around him at rapid speed. Omega realized that he was trying to get to his left side, his unarmed side. Immediately he shut off his gun, but his opponent was already charging into the safe area. His opponent's foot came up, intending to strike Omega's un-robotized left side. But Omega's wrist came down to block it. Even without the mechanical upgrades, he was still immensely powerful.

"Strong," the other figure muttered. He aimed a punch at Omega's chest, but again his arm was there. Again and again the figure tried to hit him, but his lightning fast reflexes were matched by Omega light speed processors. Finally, Omega's right arm, his robotic arm, came up and delivered a crushing blow to his attacker's chest. The figure flew back, hilling one of the trees with phenomenal force. Then he slowly crumpled to the ground.

"Simulation complete," the robotic female voice that all computer programmers use said. The clearing began to fade, to be replaced with the white walls of a holographic chamber. On the other side of the room, Shadow managed to push himself up.

"You know this is just training, right?" he said, rubbing his back. They left the training room. Espio was waiting by a mass of instruments. He raised his eyebrow.

"You were really getting into that Omega," the ninja said. He was looking at a red bar on the screen that was flashing brightly. "That punch beat Knuckles power record." Omega just nodded. It didn't really matter to him. Without another sound, he left. Shadow followed him.

"Hey Omega, wait up!" Omega turned around, piece by piece. "There's something I've got to ask you. Why are you, err, a robot?" The question surprised Omega. This person, Shadow, barely knew him but he seemed to care. Why?

Shadow was thinking the same thing. _"Why the hell do I care?"_ he thought. _"It's not like I know him really."_ But there was something about Omega that he recognized. Something in his character matched Shadow's, something that set him apart from the others. God, all this talk of souls and inner feelings, he was sounding like Amy!

"Does not compute," Omega murmured. No emotion crossed his features, but he lowered his head. "I don't know." Omega then began walking again. Shadow shrugged. No point in pushing it.

Tails walked down to his lab. This was where he came to work on his inventions. The room was just off from the pool on the ground level, with reinforced walls in case one of his inventions went haywire. An array of tools to rival that of most hardware stores hung from hooks on the wall, each one perfectly made and kept. It was private and quiet. Up until he started using his power tools, which usually meant he had the entire team breathing down his neck. Sound traveled a long way in here.

He opened and closed the door behind him, hoping to be left in peace. But then he heard footsteps inside. Instinctively, Tails pulled out his mobile, activating the tazer function he'd installed. The phone was GUN issue to all agents. Tails had actually used it to call someone about twice outside of work. Mostly he just tinkered with it. Edging inside, he raised the weapon at the intruder. Hearing the ominous buzz, the metallic blue trespasser raised his hand in surrender.

"Whoa, whoa, don't shoot! I come in peace!" Metal Sonic had the same joking tone that Sonic used so much. Tails lowered the weapon, smiling.

"What are you doing down here?" Although he had no clue about him, Tails found himself liking the robot. Must be something about his personality.

"I'm just looking around, trying to spend some time before we get picked up." Something pricked at the back of Tails' mind, but he let it go. "So I was wondering," Metal pointed to all the different power tools. "How do you get all the power for these? I didn't see any power cables coming in." Tails face split into a grin. He loved it when he could prove his intellect.

"That's because the center's generator is down here." He pointed to a giant metal dome in the corner. "That little economic beauty can supply enough power to light up a city block, let alone this little station. I designed it myself, runs off completely reusable energy." Metal smiled and nodded, which was more than people usually did. Tails' artificial tails were sticking up with delight.

"So, how does the power circulate? Like I said before, there aren't any cables."

"That's easy! The power flows through specific chemical lines running through the floor and walls. Much easier than using fuse lines and circuits."

"But wouldn't that mean that if the walls were broken, the power would be halted." Tails was amazed by how much Metal actually knew about the subject. He grinned at Metal's mistake though.

"Nope! The currents can make jumps of up to five meters to continue along their course."

"That about if this generator blows out? Wouldn't that be a problem?"

"Wrong again. This generator can withstand a power surge of up to double it capacity. The hull is double titanium plate, so it would take a jet engine to break it. Even if it does shut down, there are similar backup generators spread around the station, but none of them are nearly as powerful as this one."

"And where would these generators be?" Tails shook his head, his blonde hair flopping around with the movement.

"Sorry Metal, that's private information." The robot shrugged uncaringly.

"That's alright. Thanks for explaining all of that Tails, you're brilliant!" Metal went to the door. Tails could have sworn he saw a wicked grin on the droid's human face, but he could have been mistaken. What would Metal have to be so happy about anyway?

Sleep came quickly in the isolated station to nearly everyone. The eerie silence of the frozen southern continent, without the sounds of human inhabitation as a backdrop, was strangely calming. Soon there was only one person awake. Omega sat completely still on the couch, thinking. The black haired one, Shadow, had aroused many questions in him. Just who was he? Why couldn't he remember anything? And just what did the doctor want with him? The questions buzzed within his upgraded mind, but no answers came to him. Part of him was tempted to break something, but he held back. Such an act of violence was unseemly, and may blow their cover. So he just sat there, thinking.

"Hey Omega!" Omega rotated his head. Metal Sonic was coming up behind him. Omega relaxed slightly. Of all those he had seen, Metal was the only one he could relate to. His artificial intelligence was so advanced that he could actually understand Omega's remnants of human emotions. "Shouldn't you be recharging?" Omega didn't have to say anything, Metal could read him. "Still puzzling, are you?" Omega nodded. "Look, forget about whatever these human told you, they're not like us. They could never understand how we feel." Metal gave a smile. "You aren't them, so they can't give you advice. Now come on, we've got some work to do." Omega's features changed, showing his curiosity.

"Information required." Metal raised his hand, which melted away and reformed into a rifle twice as long as his arm.

"A little homicide." A spark of excitement passed through Omega's brain. Maybe he would get to relieve his stress after all. He followed Metal out the door. Then something crossed his mind.

"Metal, you and I are different. How can you understand me?" Metal turned back, his metallic blue eyebrow raised.

"I'm just that smart!" he grinned. Then his un-morphed hand slapped his forehead. "Damn it! Why did the Doctor give me that stupid blue freak's personality?!"

The next morning, Blaze went to find Silver. Her best friend and boyfriend had been acting strangely yesterday, focused on finding something. She finally found him in the computer room, sifting through GUN files. Creeping up behind him, she covered his eyes with one hand.

"Guess who?" Silver groaned.

"For the last time Amy, I am not Sonic!" he murmured. "Put in your contact lense!" This earned him a quick whack over his skull. "What was that for?!" Then he turned around and saw Blaze. "…oops." Blaze took a closer look at his face. There were bags under his bloodshot eyes and his hair was even more disheveled than usual.

"What the hell have you been doing?" she ordered.

"Studying," he lied. He noticed the cup of coffee in her hand. He made a grab for it, but she pulled away.

"Not until you tell me the truth! What have you been doing? And when did you get up?!" Silver rubbed his eyes.

"Just give me the coffee," he grunted grumpily.

"Silver!" she raised her voice. Silver covered his ears.

"OK, OK, just don't yell! I've been trying to find anything dangerous about our guests. And 3:30. Now give me the coffee!" Blaze handed it over and he drank it greedily.

"Why are you doing this to yourself?" She couldn't understand why Silver was going to so much trouble over something he had absolutely no proof about.

"Gut feeling," he muttered. He wasn't going to tell her about his bet with Tails in case she thought it was stupid.

"And you trust your gut enough to nearly kill yourself?!"

"That's an overstatement!" Blaze sighed. Sometimes, Silver went a little overboard. And sometimes, like now, he went really overboard!

"So what did you find?"

"Well," Silver waved his hand over his keyboard. "Not enough. Rouge is genuine, there's a ton of information under her name, all confidential. She's got a perfect track record, not a single failed mission. Besides from a few attempted robberies and an obsession with jewelry she's the perfect recruit. Omega and Metal though seem to have come completely out of nowhere. Besides from our report from Hawaii, there's nothing on Metal Sonic. And no real facts on Omega either."

"Real facts?" Blaze queried. Silver shrugged.

"There are a few rumors surrounding an Alpha-Omega unit made by Eggman. Super robots that are capable of human emotions. But as none of them have ever been seen in action or captured so there's little to support it, other than this," Silver clicked a few buttons and a rough picture came on screen. Blaze gasped. The picture was bad quality, but a group of tanks were visible, each containing a blonde individual.

"They look like…"

"Omega," Silver finished. "Minus the robotics. One picture isn't enough to go on, but…" he was cut off as the screen changed, replaced by Cornel Rose.

"Silver, Blaze, has the recovery team reached you yet?" The Cornel was sweating hard and his face was worried, almost fearful.

"No, not yet," Blaze replied. "Why?"

"We lost contact with them last night."

"There are a lot of roaming blizzards around here," Silver said skeptically. Maybe they went into one of them." Rose seemed irritated for a second, and hit a button off-screen. A different voice came over the connection; static crackling with it like it was a recording.

"_There's something on the ice."_

"_What is it?" _a second voice cut in.

"_Don't know, but it's big and it's not moving._

"_You're seeing things, Snipe."_

"_Yeah, but…" _ A thud cut him off. It sounded like something heavy landing on a metal roof. _"What the hell was that?!" _There was the screech of metal being torn apart. _"We're being boarded! May-day, may-day may…"_

_Bang!_ The sound of a high powered rifle firing.Someone screamed.

"_Oh my God it's…!"_

_Bang! _A second shot sounded.

"_Snipe, Snipe!"_

_Crunch! _Another sound of tearing metal, followed by a dying scream. Then there was nothing but static.

"That was the last communication we had with the team in their transport. There are three search teams already out there, but they are presumed dead." Silver and Blaze were both staring at him with mixed looks of horror and disgust. "The attackers may be targeting you or your guests next. Be ready." Rose cut the connection. Silver and Blaze stared at each other, their minds still processing what they'd just heard. Silver cleared his throat.

"Well, that's…" he was interrupted as Cornel Rose appeared on the screen again.

"One other thing," he said. "Tell my daughter to stop making unauthorized phone calls from the base. We've picked up three transmissions, any more and I'll cancel her plan." Once again the screen went blank. Silver waited a few seconds, but there were no more interruptions.

"Well, this basically proves that something's not right here." Blaze shook her head.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean something wrong with Metal or Omega." Silver groaned. "So what are we going to tell the others?" Silver yawned.

"Well I don't know what you're going to tell them, but I'm going back to bed." He gave her a peck on the cheek and moved towards the door.

"Hey!" Silver turned. Blaze was on her feet, hands on hips. "You're going to have to do better than that!" Silver moved back to her, swung her into his arms and gave her a long, passionate kiss. Blaze let her body relax, reveling in the sensation. After a minute he pulled away.

"Night," he whispered into her ear, and walked out.

…

**Worst thing I have ever written. Next chapter will be better, I promise.**


	4. Chapter 4

Everyone was stunned by the news of the soldier's deaths. "You're certain about this Blaze?" Shadow asked.

"Positive," she said. "I heard the recording myself." They were all in the kitchen, still eating even though it was nearly eleven. Well, the humans were eating and the robots were playing around with some batteries and oil.

"How could this happen?!" Metal asked. "I thought GUN's movements were secure."

"So did we," Shadow told him. "Someone or something must have ticked whatever attacked those soldiers off. We'll have to improve the station's defenses," he turned to Tails. "Can you…?"

"Already doing," Tails told him. He hit a button on the side of his watch.

_Clang!_

"What was that?!" Amy squeaked. She grabbed Sonic, who pulled away instinctively.

"That was the base's lockdown facilities activating," Tails explained. "All the doors are now double titanium blocked and encrypted. You'll need to use the override codes each time you enter or exit a room. The systems designed for if the base was ever compromised and hostile enemies are inside. It effectively traps them in whatever room they're in at the time. It can also be used for other systems like…"

"Tails!" Shadow interrupted. Tails stopped and gave a nervous laugh.

"He, he, I did it again didn't I?" Shadow nodded. Tails turned to Metal and Omega. "Sorry guys, but if you need to go anywhere, you'll have to go with one of us." Metal nodded. "You of course know the basic codes, don't you Rouge?"

"Of course," she said with a captivating smile.

"Good." The team started moving to their respective training and anti-boredom activities. Rouge moved into what she now knew were the empty corridors on the ground level, followed by Metal. Once they were sure that they were alone, Metal spoke.

"This had better not interfere with the Doctor's plan Rouge." His tone had gone from a mimic of Sonic's light, joking voice to a low, harsh monotone.

"It won't," Rouge assured him. "It will just mean that we have to do a bit extra. Now what do you need?"

"Access to the tailed freak's lab, shutdown codes for the power and a way into the armory. You can get all of that," the last part was a statement, not a question.

_'Honestly!' _Rouge thought. '_Not even the GUN's this demanding!'_ But her smile remained constant.

"Of course Metal dear," she said, her voice layered with sarcasm. "I am the brain of this operation." Metal made a noise like hydraulics being wrenched. It took Rouge a few seconds to realize that this was his idea of a snort. Her eyes shot down like the lockdown doors had a few minutes before. She hated men with an attitude.

"You keep telling yourself that mam, just make sure you do your job." He began to walk off. Rouge wanted to screw kick the back of his head, but there was something she was curious about. Swallowing her pride, she walked up behind him.

"Metal, can you explain something to me?" Metal turned around, one of his fake eyebrows raised. She knew he couldn't actually feel emotions, he was a robot. But man was he a good actor. "Why do you and Eggman call Omega your 'brother'?" Metal paused for a second, looking at the ceiling. He seemed to be trying to remember something long lost. His moved his lips without sound coming out, like he was trying to find some kind of sound, but hadn't learned how to talk. Finally he gave up and turned back to her.

"You want to know why I treat Omega like my brother?" he asked. Rouge nodded. Once again Metal raised his head again and did the strange movement with his lips. When nothing happened again, he lowered his head. Rouge could have sworn that she could see sadness in his eyes, no not eyes photoceptors. He wasn't human; he couldn't have emotions, could he? Metal raised his head again, his face neutral once more. "I treat him like a brother, because he is as close as I can get to one."

"That's not possible," Rouge told him. "He's human, ish, and you're a robot." Metal, doing as he was programmed, gave a perfect copy of Sonic's grin.

"You're a smart girl, work it out." The smirk disappeared the moment Metal realized it was there. "Now go do your job." Rouge walked off in a huff. Metal allowed himself a small smile. The girl wasn't trustworthy, particularly useful or even good to talk with. But she was an easy form of stress relief. Metal chuckled a little at the thought of stress. He stopped. Like he had when he'd heard Rouge's question, he opened his mouth and moved his lips. But no sound passed through his lips. He let his head fall again and tried to cry, but nothing came. "Damn you fate!" he cursed. "Why do you hate me?!"

Knuckles was alone in the gym, thinking. A rare event, but it did happen every so often when Knuckles met something that he couldn't rationalize and simplify. And that actually kept his attention afterwards. But this problem wasn't one that he could just drop.

"Why am I feeling like this?" he asked himself. "This is not natural!" He pounded his head with his fists trying to figure it out.

"You know that doesn't work," Knuckles spun around. Espio was leaning against one of the weight sets.

"Do you know how disturbing it is that you can do that?" he told the purple haired and clothed teen. Espio smiled.

"Of course I do."

"But you could be waiting anywhere: in the shower, when we're changing, when we're doing something…private." Espio gave him a light punch on the arm.

"That's why I follow the ninja code of honour. I mean, it's not like I'm Sonic or something." They both laughed. Then Espio's eyebrows snapped down. "And I'm not gay." Knuckles shrugged.

"Your hair is purple and you wear a long overcoat. 'nuff said." This time the punch he received was meant to hit the nerves. Knuckles flinched back involuntarily. "Oww!" Espio, satisfied with his revenge, settled into a silence. Knuckles kept thinking. Of all the people here, Espio was probably the only one that everyone could stand. He wasn't insulting, loud, annoying or cruel. His only problem was that sometimes his slow patience in contrast to his fast skills could sometimes be mistaken for insanity. Not that this bothered Espio.

After a few minutes, Knuckles finally came to a conclusion: he had no clue. So he turned to his comrade. "Espio, how long have we been friends?"

"Nine years and five months," Espio memory, like the rest of his skills, was perfect. "Why?"

"Can I trust you with something?" Espio put his head down, smiling.

"You want romantic advice," Knuckles stared at Espio like he was some sort of magician.

"How did you…?" Espio shrugged.

"Everyone does, don't ask me why. Now what do you want to know?" Knuckles sighed and explained his problem.

"I have no experience with girls, so I don't know what to do. What do you suggest?" Espio thought for a few seconds.

"Well, why do you like her? Do you know her at all, or do you just like how she looks?" Knuckles looked down. "I thought so. You'll get over it, trust me. As soon as she's gone, this will all blow over. By next week you won't remember her at all." Knuckles gave a combined sigh and groan.

"Maybe you're right, Espio," Knuckles conceded.

"And if not, just keep thinking those thoughts that are in you're head now." Knuckles reeled back in alarm and embarrassment.

"H…how did you…?!"

"It's written all over your face, my friend." The ninja in training gave Knuckles one of his rare looks of amusement. "Sooner or later you'll forget all of this. It'll just take time." Without another word, Espio disappeared from sight.

His friend supposedly gone, Knuckles allowed himself to withdraw back into his thoughts. Espio was most likely right, after all, the guy was a stereotype perfectionist. Besides from being able to turn invisible and kill just about anything at ten paces. Rouge should be leaving in less than two days, tops. These thoughts were meaningless in the long run. He'd forget her eventually. Knuckles pictured her in his head again. Then again, he'd also eventually be dead.

The red dreadlocked muscle tank was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he didn't notice someone else entering the weights room.

"Hey!" the intruder called as they saw him. Knuckles looked up to see the stunningly beautiful GUN agent he'd been imagining milliseconds before.

_'Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!' _Knuckles thought. "Uh, hi," he stuttered.

"I was wondering if you could help me with something." Rouge was wearing another low cut body suit that emphasized her curves. She was substantially shorter than Knuckles, giving him a perfect view down her…

_'Stop thinking like that!'_ he told himself. _'This is wrong, it's sick, it's dishonorable, god almightily she's hot!'_ If she hadn't been there he probably would have screamed with frustration. Instead, he just sat there like a stunned mullet.

"So, will you help me?" she asked him, pushing up against him. Knuckles blushed bright crimson at being this close to a girl, especially one this gorgeous.

"Uh, sure," he spluttered. Rouge smiled a stunning smile that nearly knocked Knuckles off his feet.

"Great!" She pulled him a bit into the gym. "I need to know how to get into Tails' lab. Do you have a code for the door?" Warning bells sounded in Knuckles skull. Why did she want the codes to a private area, especially one that was only useful to his two tailed tech genius brother? But she gave him another smile and these fears melted away. "Please," she pleaded, her eyes opened wide. Knuckles smiled.

"I think the codes MilesPrower. That's his real name, Tails is just his codename." Rouge beamed at him.

"Perfect!" she embraced him quickly. The show of emotion surprised him, causing him to turn an even darker shade of red than his hair, even showing through his tan. After a moment, she pulled away. "There's one last thing. Do you have the power shutdown codes by any chance?" Again, alarms tried to warn him, but he ignored them.

"Sorry, no. Only Shadow and Tails have them." Rouge looked disappointed, which made Knuckles sad. "I could ask Shadow for them, if you want." Rouges entire face lit up with happiness.

"You'd really do that for me?!" Knuckles nodded. Rouge leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Knuckles was stunned. This was the closest he'd ever been to a girl. He was close to losing consciousness. Luckily for him, Rouge finished up before he did. "Thank you!" she told him affectionately. "Find me when you get the codes." Then she left. Knuckles was still standing in the same position, staring in the same direction.

'Did she just…?' he moved his dreadlocks and felt his cheek. Finally he moved. Sure he'd get the codes, but first he had to talk to a ninja about excitement.

Silver wasn't in a good mood. After his nap he's woken up to find that he'd been trapped in the entertainment room by the lockdown, and he'd forgotten his code. So he'd had to wait for someone to try and use the room. And finally when someone had come, it had been Sonic.

"How the hell do you forget your code?!" he'd sniggered. "You were supposed to pick something that was easy to memorize, remember?" This, of course made Silver remember, which just added more wood to Sonic's jesting fire. He'd finally stopped laughing when Silver had sent him into the corner with his mind and dropped the couch on him, trapping his trousers. "And what are you going to do now cranky?" Sonic's muffled voice came from behind the furniture. He was still sniggering.

"Now I'm going to go find Amy," Silver called back. The sniggering stopped abruptly.

"No!" he pleaded. "You can't! Not when I'm helpless like this. She'll maim me!"

"That's the idea," Silver typed in his code, BeautifulFlames, and left Sonic to his fate. He wasn't actually going to tell Amy, there were limits as to how far you could go with this kind of thing. But mentioning Amy had reminded him of something he had to do for Commander Rose.

After a few minutes he found the fashion slave, looking for her self proclaimed love. "Hey Silver," she said as he entered the observatory. "Have you seen Sonic? He told Shadow he'd be here."

'_Why the hell are you listening to other people's conversation?' _Silver thought, but didn't voice this. He'd been on the receiving end of Amy's rage before, and didn't want to be there again. "Nope, haven't seen him. But there is something I need to tell you."

"What?" she asked.

"Cornel Rose gave me a call. He wants you to stop using your mobile to contact people outside the station. You remember they could be traced, don't you?" Amy gave him a puzzled look.

"But I haven't made any calls at all," she told him. Silver sighed.

"Amy, just don't do it!"

"But I haven't done anything!" she yelled at him. "Are you calling me a liar?!"

"No," Silver raised his voice. "I'm being practical. Espio, Knuckles and me don't have phones, I know Sonic and Blaze are both out of credit, our guests don't have mobiles and Tails phone is broken!" Well, technically it wasn't broken. Tails updated it constantly with new gadgets, but he barely ever used it to call anyone. "You're the only suspect!" Amy pulled out her mobile, pink with a flower design, and punches some buttons violently.

"Look!" She shoved the phone in his face. The contact history list was up. "I haven't made a call in over a week!" Silver looked over the list. It was true, no call had been made since they'd come to the Antarctic station.

"But if you didn't make the calls," Silver thought out loud. "Then that means…" Without warning he suddenly started running out.

"Hey!" Amy called. "What are you doing?!" She sprinted to catch up. As Silver went through the door out of the observatory, and nearly bowled Metal Sonic over.

"What's the rush?" the android asked. Silver ignored the question and ran past him. Then Amy came past him. "Hey…" but she passed him as well. Was that girl contagious or something, because everyone seemed to be avoiding her like the plague? Still curious, Metal followed the sprinting agents.

As Silver reached the computer room, Amy caught up. "What was that all about?" Silver didn't answer, but walked up to the computer and began typing. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

"If you didn't make the calls," Silver said at near mute. "And no one else on the team made the call, then that means that there's someone else on the base." Amy stared at him like he'd suddenly lost his skin.

"What?!"

"What's the problem?" Metal said as he ran in.

"Silver's gone insane!" Amy went bluntly. "He thinks there's someone else on the station." She'd expected Metal to laugh, but he just stared at her, completely serious.

"That's impossible," he said. Suddenly his voice had a tinge of metallic to it. "Someone would know."

"Take it up with Mr. Psychic." Amy pointed to Silver, who was still muttering to himself.

"Where are those sound files?" he muttered as he typed. "Where are…"

_Click!_

"What's that?!" Metal asked.

"It looks like Silver found what he was looking for." The speakers on either side of the massive screen began to work.

_"Come in, what do you have to report?" _The voice was clearly that of the notorious Dr Eggman. "Damn," Silver muttered. "I hoped I was wrong."

_"Nearly everything is in place, my master" _A second voice rasped. It was somewhat familiar. _"All that is left is for that spy to bring me the codes."_

_"Brilliant work. Now all you must do is wait."_

_"As always my lord. Metal Sonic out!"_ Then the communication ended.

"Metal…" Silver gasped. He felt sharp metal points prick the back of his neck.

"Don't move," Metal Sonic said simply. All trace of emotion had left his voice. Silver couldn't see what was pricking his back, but he doubted it was pleasant. "Come in Omega, Rouge," he heard Metal say. "The mission is compromised. Begin extermination of all SPEED members now!"

**Just found out that Silver is in Sonic and the Black Knight, making it officially one of my favourite games. Too bad it's only on wii and I have a PS3! Curse you SEGA! Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter. Antares out!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Could it be? Is it possible? Yes, I have finally bothered to update! Sorry for the wait, I swear I have a good reason for it! (Now I just have to come up with one!) Anyway, enjoy**

"Don't move," Metal Sonic said simply. All trace of emotion had left his voice. Silver couldn't see what was pricking his back, but he doubted it was pleasant. "Come in Omega, Rouge," he heard Metal say. "The mission is compromised. Begin extermination of all SPEED members now!"

"Copy," Omega said from the corridors on level two. He began to move to the central shaft.

"What was that?" Shadow asked. He'd been trying to get more information out of the cyborg. Without turning around, Omega's robot arm came round and grasped Shadow's leather jacket. "What the…?!" With little effort, Omega sent him flying along the corridor into one of the solid walls. A stunned look crossed the dark teens face, and then he slumped to the floor. Omega didn't bother to check if he was dead, but he doubted it. Shadow was strong; he'd seen him fight and hadn't put that much force into the throw. Omega continued to the centre of the floor.

When he arrived, Rouge was coming from the other direction. "Damn it!" Rouge cursed. "Why is he putting the plan into action now?! I don't have the shutdown codes yet!" she looked over at Omega. She could only see his human features. With his blonde hair and muscles, he could almost be cute, except for his fixed mouth. Come to think of it, he sort of resembled a young…

"What do we do now?" Omega asked.

"Metal Sonic wants us to shut off the power, so we need to get to Tails lab." They headed for the doorway, but Shadow limped out from the hallway.

"You two have…" he coughed up a bit of blood. "You two have a lot of explaining to do." He pulled his gun from inside his jacket.

_'Why does he carry a gun in here?!'_ Rouge thought. Shadow began to walk forward.

"Come on, spit it out!" he yelled. The sound echoed throughout the central chamber, and was heard.

"Shadow," Blaze called from level one. "What's with the racket?

"What do we do now?" Rouge hissed. Omega's brain was thinking over the possibilities. In the end, there was only one.

"Jump," he said in his monotone voice.

"What?!" Rouge exclaimed. But Omega was already grabbing her and vaulting over the railing.

"Stop!" Shadow called, but it was too late. Omega was falling fast, with Rouge screaming in his grasp. His weight carried them past a stunned Blaze in under a second. They were heading for the pool fast.

"I can't swim you idiot!" Rouge screamed at him.

"No need," just before they hit the water, hidden rockets activated in Omega's back, stopping them instantly. Then gravity caught up with them.

"Urgh," Rouge moaned as the feeling of weightlessness that came with frefall ended and her own weight slammed itself on her muscles. The onset of gravity didn't seem to affect Omega. He floated them over to the door to Tails' lab. He dropped Rouge unceremoniously and stated to walk to the door. Rouge wiped her mouth and followed. As she came to Omega, she gave him a vicious slap to his human face. His metal neck held his face stone hard.

"Never do that again," she said, slowly and accenting every word.

"Understood," the cyborg replied. Rouge typed the code into the door. It swooshed open.

"You took your time Sonic," Tails called from his work bench. Power tools were blaring so he couldn't hear the clink of Omega's metal foot and he didn't turn round. "What held you up?" When he got no answer, he turned around. "Wha…?" Rouge's metal tipped boot slammed into his ribs, hard. His thin form went flying with ease, cracking into the back wall. He didn't get up.

"Now, let's get started." Rouge moved over to the power system control panel and began typing randomly. No dice. "Damn it!" Omega was looking at some of the objects on Tails desk.

"Does Metal need this in one piece?" he asked.

"Doubt it!" Rouge typed another code. Again it didn't work. She kicked it with frustration.

"Move aside," Omega ordered. He was holding what looked like the barrel of a giant's gun without the handle. A large warning symbol was clearly visible. Rouge obeyed without question. Taking aim, Omega pulled what he assumed was the trigger. A beam of energy shot from the nozzle of the gadget and hit the power system square at the centre. Needless to say, it had a terrific explosion. All over the station the lights went out, appliances shut down and most importantly, the doors stopped working.

Back up in the computer room, Metal smiled as the lights and computers went out. "The board is set, the dice is cast. Let the games begin!" He continued to point his hands, now lethal claws, at Silver and Amy. "Let's see how your friends fare against Omega, shall we." He activated a light in his head, pointing it at the door. Both his captives moved slowly towards it.

"I don't get it," Silver said bluntly. "What do you get from this Metal? If you planned this, then you're obvious smart enough to work without Dr Eggman. Why not just go on your own?" Metal activated his vocabulator and made an animal like snarl.

"Keep moving freak!" They came out onto the balcony of the top level overlooking the rest of the station. From here, they could clearly see Omega and Rouge exiting the lab with Tails limp form over Omega's shoulder. Metal laughed maliciously. "One of your friends is already down. Let's see how long it takes the others to fall." He raised his voice to call down to Omega. "Hunt them down and bring them to me alive my brethren. Understood?" The larger boy raised his head.

"Understood." The figure dropped the unconscious boy and began moving towards the corridors, followed by the agent. Metal sighed.

"Tie up your prisoner first," he ordered them, but they were out of earshot. He turned to the two prisoners. "Don't move!" Then he jumped over the ledge, as Omega had done a minute before. Amy began to move for the exit.

"What are you doing?" Amy turned to her silver haired companion.

"Getting away from that monster, what does it look like?"

"You can't do that! He told us to stay put!" Amy looked at him like he was mad.

"Silver, he's the bad guy and he's given us a chance to get away. Why the hell would we listen to him?" Silver pointed to where Metal was tying up Tails.

"What do you think he'll do to Tails if we're gone?" Amy hadn't thought of that. She groaned.

"So what, we just sit here as his prisoners?" her voice sounded expectant, like she thought Silver could pull something out of thin air. Which he usually could.

"Not exactly." Silver listened, and heard, Metal's jet engines activating. How many things had they missed when they searched those robots?! As Metal came back up with Tails over his shoulder, Silver sent a wave of kinetic energy into him. The blast made Tails sway, but didn't seem to affect Metal.

"I'm platinum plated fool!" the robot said. "Your powers can't pass through the metal." Silver snapped his fingers in realization.

"Platinum, of course! That's how Eggman keeps blocking my powers! Thanks Metal." Metal stared at the silver psychic, completely stunned. He'd just given his opponent crucial information. What the hell?! Metal's self criticism was ended by a large pink hammer slamming into his head. The hit scrambled his circuits, causing a momentary shutdown of all systems, including his jet engine. Silver managed to grab Tails before he too plummeted into the water as Amy recalled her hammer, which folded neatly into her boot.

"Now can we run?" Amy asked. Silver nodded and, carrying Tails ran into the corridors. He activated his radio which, luckily, wasn't linked to the main power.

"Come in Shadow. What's your status?"

"Oh just brilliant, you luminous numbskull! I'm sitting in the middle of God damned hell!" Shadow was sitting behind a large crate with Blaze in the training facilities. They'd been trapped on the way down to investigate Omega's unexplained freefall. Shadow peeked round the box. Instantly, a barrage of bullets pounded the area around him. A few nearly raked Shadow's ebony hair.

"Metal wants them alive Omega!" he heard a female voice call. He couldn't actually see because the only lights were Omega's eye and the flame in Blaze's hand.

"Now Silver, explain to me why the lights and the doors aren't working!"

"We think Omega blew up the reactor," Silver replied. "Where are the others?"

"Blaze is with me, Tails was in his lab and you're wherever you are. That's all I know. You?"

"I've got Tails and Amy with me and Sonic should still be trapped in the entertainment room, but I have no clue where Espio or Knuckles are. Damn it!" There was a bang of someone pounding on a metal surface. The lockdown doors weren't going to open.

"Silver, listen! I need you to get to the observatory. There's a second power system in there. Turn it on." Shadow pointed his pistol over the top of the crate and fired off three rounds. There were two thuds and a clang as the last shot ricochet Get Sonic if you need any help."

"Why by chaos would I need Sonic's help?"

"I don't know? Scapegoat him or something." The thought brought a smile to Shadow's features.

"Got ya! Silver out." The connection was cut.

"So what do we do now?" Blaze asked.

"We have to find Espio and Knuckles." At that moment Espio's familiar overcoat and hair appeared beside them. The purple ninja had appeared within inches of their faces so many times that neither Shadow nor Blaze did so much as bat an eyebrow.

"What's going on?" he asked bluntly.

"We don't know. Omega's gone skits and Rouge is apparently assisting him. We're assuming that Metal Sonic is helping them as well."

"So why's the power out?"

"Omega destroyed the generator. Any idea where Knuckles is?" Espio grinned.

"Judging from the amount of PowerAde he drank in the gym this morning, and the point that Sonic slipped a laxative into his cereal, I'd say he's trying to get out of the toilet on this level." Blaze raised her eyebrows suspiciously.

"Do you even realize how disturbing you are Espio?" Espio ignored her, instead addressing Shadow. "So what do we do now Shadow?"

"We have to take out these intruders. I'll take Omega, you two lead Rouge off somewhere."

"Why?" Blaze asked.

"If what I plan to do is going to work, then Omega has to be alone. But before that, we need to get out from here," Shadow went to rise, but more Machine Gun fire held him down. "Any ideas?" Espio gave him a sympathetic look and snapped his fingers, disappearing from sight.

"I'll handle this," Shadow sort of felt him move off, even though he couldn't see or hear him. Suddenly Omega's guns fired off again, sizzling the back wall behind them. Espio reappeared behind cover, his face still impossibly calm but with a few new holes in his overcoat. "That's not going to work. They must be using night vision or heat vision." Shadow thought for a second, puzzling.

'We can't escape without being seen because with heat vision they can see out heat signatures. I could teleport us, but then I'd be useless for the next half hour. Heat vision," he mused out loud. Heat vision, heat, Fire!' He turned to Blaze. "Can you generate enough heat to mess up their systems?" Blaze smiled felinely.

"I might." She raised her hands, while still remaining under cover. The air began to grow stale and hot, like a day in a desert summer, as Blaze used the same skill she used to spontaneously combust air to create fireballs, but on a wider and more controlled scale. Shadow could feel himself sweating heavily under his heavy leather jacket. After a few seconds they heard Omega's mechanical voice.

"Error! Heat vision has been impaired. Unable to locate targets."

"What! How could you…?!" Rouge was cut off as a red high heel slammed into her busting chest, sending her through the open door behind her, followed by two figures with a light purple cloak and a dark purple coat respectively.

"Rouge?" The robot human showed no sign of surprise at what had just happened. "Our mission is not complete yet, you can't take a break yet." Below Rouge was fending off Blaze from one side, but was moving erratically to avoid the invisible enemy she knew was behind her.

"Does it look like I'm having a tea party you stupid robot?!" Omega's sensors registered another form coming out from cover, faster than was humanly possible. He tried to turn and fire, but only managed to register a black and red blur with sparks flying behind it before Shadow reached him. The spiky haired Goth grabbing his flesh arm with ease and swung him viciously into the dark corridors.

Silver and Amy were having trouble with the doors. Giving up on using their passwords they'd been forced to bash down the obstacles with Silver's powers, which resulted in leftover metal cluttering up the corridors. Cleaning up after this was going to be a nightmare! And with each step they could hear Metal Sonic getting closer. Finally they reached one of the final turns. Right went to the entertainment area, while left led up to the observatory. Silver started going left but Amy caught his shirt.

"We have to get Sonic!" Silver sighed. He'd been expecting this.

"Sonic's a big boy, he doesn't need our protection," he told her firmly. "We're in a rush, no detours!" He was tempted to add that Sonic didn't actually like her, just for spite, but he wasn't sure whether or not that was true. If it was true, then Sonic did a very good job of masking his feelings. Better than Silver would have given him credit for. Amy grabbed his collar and pulled his face close, her eyes sparking dangerously. With Tails over his shoulder the fair psychic nearly unbalanced.

"We get Sonic!" she seethed, her voice like acid. Silver gulped.

"Yes miss." He raised his hand and blew the door off its hinges. They hurried through, all too aware how close behind them Metal truly was.

**Expect next update to appear in the next few days at the latest. Happy Easter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**See, I told you I'd be quick!**

Shadow and Omega crashed together in the cramped space. Here the larger Omega held the advantage but even he was having trouble hitting the ultimate life form. A combination of Chaos teleporting, air shoes and skill meant that Shadow was constantly attacking and never in the same place for more than a few seconds. Both acknowledged that this was a fair battle. Most of Shadow's kicks either met Omega's metal upgrades or were ignored, and Omega's metal claw might as well have been a brick for all the chance it had of hitting the lightning fast boy. But the outcome was still set: Omega's endurance would win out in the end. So Shadow had to use a different tactic; psychological warfare.

Shadow managed a tremendous kick to the cyborg's face and shut down his photoceptor. Now the corridor was plunged into complete darkness. Omega swung blindly, but Shadow was gone. Then the low, husky voice sounded.

"Why are you doing this Omega?" he asked. Omega spun, his claw already formed into his SMG, up and firing. But there was nothing there. The voice came again, this time from the other side of the corridor. "Who is giving you these orders?" The tone had something Omega didn't quite recognize. Honesty. Again he fired, and again the effort was fruitless. Then Shadow spoke straight into his ear. "Why do you fight?" Confusion fueled Omega's human arm as it spun round and caught the agent in the chest, slamming him into the wall. He activated a light in his robotized limb, shining it onto Shadow's face.

"I owe everything to Dr Eggman. He is my creator. He made me."

"Surely you had a life before he added these…?"" Shadow was lost for an explanation. "Circuits?" Omega shook his head.

"No life, nothing before. I must kill you, because he orders it." There was no trace of remorse in his tone. He raised his claw for the kill, but Shadow said something that stopped him in his tracks.

"Would you like a life?" Everything human in the cyborg's mind suddenly flared with questions: who was he? What was he meant for? What did he think? The thoughts caused his rotors to freeze. But then his implants took over and his arm moved to spear the teenager's head

"No," a voice sounded. It wasn't Omega's usual metallic tone, but completely human with emotion. But the claw struck air as Shadow teleported away, and Omega was left with nothing but more questions.

On ground level, Rouge and Blaze were fighting viciously. Rouge was older and had more experience, but Blaze fought like nothing Rouge had ever fought before. Every one of her strikes lined with controlled fire, giving her a larger radius and striking area in a way that Rouge had never experienced. Pyrokinesis isn't a very common ability. On top of that, the agent was sure that the ninja kid was somewhere hidden behind her, waiting for her to leave an opening to strike. God she hated fighting mutants!

"I'm curious," the regal looking female said between strikes. "You had a good job with GUN. Why give that up to help whatever crackpot came up with this? It is Eggman you're working for, isn't it?" Rouge smiled at the girl's lack of insight. The answer was staring her in the face.

"Come on honey, it's not that hard to figure out." She heard the nearly silent step as Espio tried to strike. She moved rapidly, and his strike hit her side. Immense pain shot from the area, but the attack had missed her spine. Without her quick thinking it would have temporarily paralyzed her legs. Gritting her teeth through the pain, she spun a roundhouse kick into the area of the unseen opponent. A satisfying thud and Espio's grunt told her she'd aimed true.

Her happiness was short lived, as Blaze's flaming hand struck her already stinging back. Her suit kept the heat to a minimum, but the hit was hard enough to make Rouge stumble. This was getting out of hand. Rouge pulled out a smoke grenade from her utility belt, which she'd picked up from Tails' lab. Before either of the younger agents could react, she detonated it. Foul smelling gas billowed out to hide her retreat. She said one thing before she left.

"By the way dear, your past tense is wrong."

Up on level 3, Silver and Amy were freeing Sonic from his furniture prison. The moment he was out, Amy embraced him in a 'love' hold. As they say, resistance was futile.

"Don't you dare run off again Sonic!" Sonic tried to recoil.

"Amy, please!" He turned to Silver. "Can you explain why the lights went?" On Silver's shoulder, Tails began to stir.

"Uhh! I feel like Amy just hit me with that hammer."

_Wham!_

"Amy!" The pink girl shrugged.

"What?" Tails gripped his sore head, feeling another bump coming up to accompany the one Rouge's kick into the wall had given him. "OK, OK, bad metaphor. What is going on?!"

"Well, far as we know, Metal Sonic is working for Dr Eggman trying to murder us. Rouge and Omega are working with him. They shut down the power system."

"That damn traitor!" Tails said angrily. "She tricked us!" He gripped his stomach. "And she uses steel toed boots. Who uses steel toed boots?!" Silver couldn't help by grin at Tails predicament.

"This means I win the bet!" he said happily. Tails glared at him

"Win what?" Amy asked suspiciously. "What bet?!" Silver covered his mouth, like a lying child.

"Nothing, nothing at all!" Amy stared at him, but let it drop.

"So what's the plan now?" Sonic asked.

"Shadow wants us to reactivate the backup generator in the observatory."

"That sounds easy enough." Like magic, the roar of a jet engine came at that exact time. Blazing fire lit the corridor.

"When did Metal get a jet engine?" Sonic asked, his tone accusing.

"Don't look at me!" Silver said. He dived as something metallic blue literally rocketed into the room. It was Metal, but now his artificial hair was soaked and each movement made an ominous squeak. His shirt was torn at the back where he'd had to activate the hidden booster which now concaved his back. A dent in his cheek showed where Amy had hit him, right next to his glowing red eye.

"You are becoming troublesome, psychic," he said. His voice no longer even resembled that of a human. "I will end this charade now." Suddenly another blue streak struck the human imitation.

"Sonic!" Amy called fearfully. The speed demon was striking the robot at supersonic speed.

"Get to the second generator. I'll be fine with this imposter," Metal recovered from the blows and gave Sonic a solid uppercut to the jaw. "Get moving!"

"But…"

"Do it!"

Silver pulled Amy out of the room as the blue blurs began tearing the room to shreds at Mach 1.

Without any more civilians, Sonic let all hell loose. The two ran in circles, creating a wind tunnel. Anything not bolted down was swept up and became flying debris. Both humanoids continued attacking each other in circles, striking like maniacs. Sonic had spent years perfecting his ability to run and kick at the same time but Metal was programmed with this skill. Metal also couldn't be tripped like most of Sonic's foes before as his jets kept him off the ground. After some time, they stopped moving and faced each other. The tornado that had formed around them began to die down, causing the TV, lounge and cushions to fall loudly to the ground.

Sonic was breathing heavily. Metal Sonic's skills astounded him. Every tactic he'd tried had been predicted and countered with ease. It was as if he'd been built to beat Sonic.

'_Of course he's built to beat you!'_ Sonic told himself. _'Why else does Eggman build a copy of you?!'_ Metal began to come towards him. He'd completely lost his shirt and the synthetic skin of his chest had been ripped away to reveal his jet engine's intake area. He could no longer be mistaken for Sonic, or any other human being for that matter.

"Give up human. You stand no chance against me." Sonic grinned at the robot.

"Fat chance bolty! I've just got one question before we keep going," Metal ignored him and kept walking towards him. Sonic continued unperturbed. "What are you? You can't be the average robot; you're smarter and stronger than anything Eggy's come up with before. And you can act, and no true robot can act. So, what, did he take some poor guy's brain and stick it in a copy of me?" Metal shook his head.

"I am not made from any idiotic flesh creature! I am the most advanced artificial being on the plant. I surpass all others with my power and intellect. No one can possibly hope to defeat me, especially not an inferior copy like you!" As his monologue finished, Metal dashed forward, claws raised. Sonic just managed to dodge left. They circled each other again.

"If you're so great, why are you taking orders from someone as incompetent as Dr Ivo Robotnic?" The android laughed, the sound like a copy of Sonic's own. Unoriginal and created, like the rest of him.

"You truly are mindless, aren't you? Do you honestly think I would continue to take orders from that idiot if I had a choice?! He…" Suddenly Metal began to spark. He gripped his head as if he was in pain. Sonic needed no invitation. He charged at the speed of sound and delivered a swift kick right into the robots glowing red eye. Metal stumbled back, a new dent present in his face. Sonic grinned triumphantly, but his arrogance was his downfall.

"You'll regret that freak!" The machine grabbed his flesh counterpart and started rocketing _through _the floor. Due to a miscalculation on the robot's part Metal's frame took most of the force, but Sonic's head still received enough injury to merit a concussion. After two floors, Metal braked heavily and stopped on the first floor. He held the blue haired boy at arms length like an unattractive sewer rat or unwanted pet and allowing his claw to sharpen. His programming allowed him one small smile at the finish of his objective.

"Goodbye, my speedy mirror image."

_Clang!_

An unforeseen impact riddled Metal's chassis. Something with roughly the strength of a wrecking ball had just slammed into his engine's exhaust port. He was sent flying into one of the sinks lining the wall of what he only now realized was the first floor's toilet. From behind one of the stalls came the red dreadlocks and white gloved Knuckles, rage glowing in his eyes.

"Looks like you struck out traitor!" he seethed. Metal tried to rise, but there was sever damage to all his motors. He was, for the first time in his unnatural life, completely helpless. There was no conceivable avenue of escape, and he would not be reduced to begging. "What have you got to say, you blood sucking coward?!" Knuckles roared. "Any last words before I pummel you into whatever afterlife droids believe in?" Metal gave a mimic of Sonic's cocky grin.

"I'll just let you know that Rouge is as traitorous as I." Knuckles took a double take. Doubt was written all over his face. "Oh yes, her acting is quite a thing to see, especially when she plays the helpless, delicate type," Metal added an undertone of sarcasm to add to the effect. It was working, as Knuckles face was going from red to purple. The gleam of anger that Metal had seen before was now a floodlight. "Oh you poor fool! You like her, don't you?" To finish, Metal replayed a loop of Sonic's mocking cackle. Knuckles dived forwards screaming. He took Metal's head, the neon red eyes still mocking him, and slammed it into the sink. Then the wall. Then he started striking it with his fists, pounding it with as little resistance as a rag doll. The attack was devastating. The skin was completely destroyed, his frame decimated and his power cells renders unusable. With his last control, he managed to make sure that his voice chip was the last thing to be shut off.

Knuckles breathed hard, Metal's no longer functioning body in his fist. He ripped his head off and pegged it at the wall, but it didn't help. He'd been duped, tricked, played like a fool. And now he felt like crap. He activated the comm. on his wrist.

"Shadow, where are you?"

"Where the hell have you been?!" Shadow's harsh voice retorted.

"Doesn't matter," Knuckles mumbled, embarrassed at being trapped in something as trivial as a toilet. "I'm here with both Sonics. Tell me where to take them."

"Is Metal Sonic functioning?"

"Not likely! His head is a good meter from his body," Knuckles tried to joke. It sounded sick to him.

"Leave Metal where he is, but bring Sonic up to the observatory. We're going to try and work out what's going on up there. Shadow out."

Knuckles sighed and slowly went over to Sonic, lifting him over his shoulder and jumping up through the holes left in the roof.

Silver, Tails and Amy moved through the darkened station, the only light coming from Silver's active tattoos. They met no resistance, and soon the sound of Sonic and Metal's fight died down.

"I can't believe we just left Sonic to die!"

"Sonic's a hero," Tails told Amy rationally. "There's little chance of him losing to one of Eggman's mechs."

"Quiet!" Silver hissed. "There could have let more robots in by now. I'd rather not run into anything else that's platinum coated."

As it turned out his fills were incorrect. They encountered no more enemies on their route and soon came into the observatory. Most of the room was dominated by a gigantic telescope pointed into the heavens. A few computers recorded data constantly. Tails moved to these and opened the casing

"There should be a backup source hidden somewhere under… Bingo!" there was the sound of electricity buzzing through the walls and all over the station lights turned on and doors opened. Silver pulled his radio out of his jeans again.

"OK Shadow, we've activated the backup power. What do we do now?"

"Hold your position until I arrive. Knuckles and Sonic are on their way as well. We need to plan what comes next."

In a few minutes all SPEED members were in the room. Sonic had regained conciseness, but wasn't completely with the program. He was muttering incoherently about everything from music to cheese.

"What's our status?" Shadow addressed the team.

"Three hostiles," Espio stated. "One assumed out of commission. One hostile is heavily armed and both are dangerous." Shadow nodded and turned to Amy.

"What about us? Is everyone all right?" Amy shrugged.

"Everyone fine except Sonic. He has a major concussion and probably won't be able to fight for a few days." From the corner, Silver shrugged.

"With his thick skull I'm sure he'll recover a lot quicker then that." Amy scowled in his direction.

"And what have you come up with, Mister all knowing Silver?" The white haired boy grinned.

"Tails and I have managed to track down where Metal Sonic was contacting Eggman," he said smugly. "He's in the middle of the Pacific. We've sent the co-ordinates to GUN already. They're sending a team there and to our location, but I think they want us to have Rouge and Omega in custody before they arrive."  
"What makes you say that?" Amy asked.

"They said 'Make sure the prisoners are outside when we arrive. We don't want to take long.'" Silver shrugged. "We also ran a scan of the surrounding area. No sign of any reinforcements for our buddies. Looks like they're on their own as well."

"Good, now we need to find out where they are," Shadow stared at his still motionless team. "NOW!" Everyone started moving around the computers, not because they were able to do anything but to calm Shadow's temper. The only person who didn't move was Blaze, who remained staring into space, thinking. Silver noticed her.

"What's up?" Blaze blinked a few times, drawn from her thoughts.

"Pardon?"

"What were you thinking about?"

"Just something Rouge said." She recounted Rouge's comment about her grammar. "I just don't see what she meant by it. Do you?" Silver thought for a second.

"Well, if your past tense is wrong, then that means you're referring to the wrong period of time. So instead of 'you had a good job with GUN,' it's 'you have a good job with GUN.'" Blaze looked at him skeptically.

"You sure?" Silver nodded.

"Positive!"  
"But that means…" Blaze's eyes widened as the clue clicked. She kissed her silver haired boyfriend, making him blush a bright pink than Amy's hair. "You're a genius!" They both ran over to Shadow.

"What is it?" they told him what they'd discovered. His usual sneer became a smile. Two claps got everyone else's attention. "People, it's time to act!"

**OK, I came up with Rouge's clue while watching an episode of Dr Who. I know it isn't very good, but I couldn't come up with anything else. Kudos if you can actually make sense of it. Antares out!**


	7. Chapter 7

**It finally ends.**

Down in the toilet, Omega was rewiring Metal Sonic to reactivate him. Rouge was sitting on the remains of the sink, trying to keep off the floor. She looked at Metal's remains with disdain.

"Must we reactivate him?" she asked Omega. "I mean, there's really no point. We've already lost this battle so we might as well hand ourselves over peacefully. It's…" she stopped as Omega stood up. His face was as unreadable as ever, as was his posture.

"Analyzing argument," he said mechanically. "Searching for proper response. Response found." He turned to the spy. "Shut up!" The last words actually sounded human. Interesting. Rouge shrugged.

"Unless metal's head had something amazing in his circuits, we can't win." Omega hit a few switches on Metal's back. The metallic blue human copy's engine spluttered back to life and the android began moving again.

"As a matter of fact Rouge," he said. His body was now just a metal skeleton with a few scraps of cloth and skin handing here and there. All that was left of his face was a wisp of synthetic organ around his temple, revealing he had no hole for a mouth. The effect was beyond unnerving, going into nightmarish. "I do." With a sudden flash, he disappeared.

"What was that?!" Rouge exclaimed. Omega turned to her slowly.

"Experimental teleportation device. Harnesses the power of the chaos emerald that powers Metal to transport the user through space." Rouge nodded.

"Right." Below Omega's vision, she hit a button on her radio.

Back in the observatory, the SPEED members' phones began beeping like crazy.

"What's going on?" Sonic asked as he stared at his mobile.

"It's the general alert," Tails said. "A GUN agent's giving us a warning, but can't use anything verbal. But who would do that?" Shadow twitched slightly.

'_What was that?'_ he thought. _'I sensed something. Something related to…' _Then he noticed a light just behind Amy. "Amy, get down!" Amy reacted, but too slowly. Metal Sonic appeared behind her, grabbing her roughly with his claws and disappeared again. Sonic stared at the point for a few seconds.

"What just happened?" he asked dumbly.

"Your girlfriend just got taken by a half destroyed teleporting robot copy of you," Knuckles answered. Sonic was so stunned, and still concussed, that he didn't rise to the girlfriend jibe.

"Thought so." Without another word he sped through the door. Tails stared after him.

"What's he doing?" Shadow shrugged.

"Something stupid."

"Should we help him?"

"Give him a second." There was silence for a few seconds. Then the echo of human bones striking a metal wall reverberated up to the observatory. Shadow gave an evil grin. "Now we help."

It had taken Sonic two seconds to get down to the first floor, another three to find the restroom. Once there he bolted in, and was knocked back out instantly. He didn't seem to notice, just charged straight back in. He had to get Amy away from the murderous robots.

Not that he cared for her or anything.

"Sonic!" Amy wailed, beating her mechanical captor.

"You don't give up, do you?!" Metal exclaimed.

"Not a chance!" Sonic called back. He charged again, and was knocked back by Omega's heavy arm. By now, Shadow was at his side.

"Do you have a plan?" he asked. Sonic just grunted and charged again, meeting the same fate as before. He hit the back wall hard, rips in his shirt and jeans. "Guess not." Shadow snapped his fingers and warped behind Metal. The robot seemed to predict this and pulled the struggling Amy out of reach. Rouge jumped and axe kicked Shadow just as he came out of the warp. She tried a follow up, but Shadow's recovery was lightning fast and he used his air shoes to catch her leg. A quick burst of air sent her leg flying back, followed by the rest of her body. Right before she made contact with the wall, Rouge spread her legs wide so she landed in an air splits, spreading her momentum over a large area and lessening the impact. Shadow was already speeding forward to attack again, and Rouge had to jump aside to avoid him.

"Mi a elbuod tnega!" she said in absolute gibberish.

"Ew wonk," Shadow said back in the same gibberish, still punching. "Tsuj ylap gnola." Rouge stared at him for a few seconds, and then dive kicked Shadow's legs from under him.

Omega was still holding the doorway, but he realized that he couldn't stand against any strikes once Knuckles and the others arrived. Throwing Sonic back again, Omega bent the door frame with his cyborg arm, stretching the metal so no normal sized human could fit through. Omega had seen the red boy's strength, and knew this barrier wouldn't hold once he arrived. He moved to Metal, who was still clutching the struggling pink girl.

"Retreat recommended. Capture impossible at current strength." Metal shook his head.

"No." he said. "We use the negative generator." Omega took an involuntary step back. His mind was screaming at him, telling him this was wrong, telling him the stop Metal. But his implant overrode these impulses.

"What of the spy?" he asked in his usual monotone.

"She dies with the rest." Omega was sure that if he still had a mouth, Metal would have smiled. "Serves her right! She's irritating and useless. I'm certain the doctor would believe she turned traitor." Omega just stared at him, secretly shocked. Part of his mind was still telling him to turn against the android.

Suddenly the doorway was broken down by one mighty punch from Knuckles. Omega turned, raising his arm mounted machine gun. Knuckles clenched his fists and charged regardless. Omega hesitated before firing, but once again his robotics took over and he let loose. But the bullets barely left the barrel before they were engulfed by an aqua light and stopped dead.

"Damn psychic," Metal cursed and moved to meet the dreadlocked teen, pushing Amy to Omega in the process.

Knuckles' first punch missed wide, and Metal sent his knee into his side. Knuckles stumbled back, winded, and Metal punched him in the jaw, then the ribs. Knuckles fell to his knees, gasping. Silver, who'd been navigating the debris of Knuckles punch, moved to help him up. Not nearly as good in close combat as he was at defense, Silver was sent flying by a single one of the android strikes, knocking Knuckles back with him. Metal used another copy of Sonic's laugh.

"Foolish boy! Did you honestly believe that you could beat me?! You deserved to be tricked, you're that stupid!" Metal expected some smart comment or roar of rage from the headstrong individual. He didn't expect laughter.

"Robots," Knuckles said between strained chuckles. "You can see a million miles to the front but not an inch to the sides, can you?" Then he felt a boot slam into his back engine. A steel toed boot.

Metal was thrown a few feet, but flipped his gyros and back flipped to land on his feet. Rouge landed next to Knuckles, offering her hand to help him up.

"No hard feelings?" Knuckles blushed slightly, and then grasped her hand. The rest of SPEED, minus a still captive Amy, all ran to their side. Metal Sonic sighed.

"Humans," he said exasperatedly. "So eager to solve a problem through violence. Well, I guess we shall indulge you." Before anyone could act, he flew up through the hole in the roof left by his fight with Sonic. Omega was up there, holding Amy securely under his robotic arm. She was still struggling, but getting nowhere.

"What a beautiful rose you are," Metal crooned. He stroked her face, but she pulled away.

"Get away from her!" Sonic shouted. He moved forward, but stopped as Metal pressed his claw hard against Amy's throat.

"And here I thought you didn't have feelings for her. How astute." Metal gestured to Omega, and he threw Amy down to the blue haired boy. He managed to just catch her. She hung onto his neck.

"Sonic, I knew you cared!" Strangely enough, Sonic didn't pull out of the embrace. In fact, he hugged her back. SPEED in general rolled their eyes.

"He still has a concussion, doesn't he?" Silver whispered to Shadow.

"Hope so," Shadow muttered back. "Otherwise we'll have two love struck guys to handle." Silver nodded. Then he realized that Shadow was referring to his relationship with Blaze.

"Hey…" Metal clanged his hands together loudly in a clapping motion, getting everyone's attention.

"Now that you're all together, it's time to demonstrate one of Dr Eggman's greatest strokes of genius!" He held up his hand that morphed into a small cannon. "He has figured out how to extract chaos energy from the air that radiates you're your bodies! This will create a massive blast. Prepare to be the first test subjects!"

"Tails!" Shadow said to the blonde teen. "Is that possible?!"

"It's improbable, but if anyone could do it, it's Eggman."

"OK Metal," Shadow called. "What do you want?" Metal raised his head, creating another mimic of Sonic's laugh.

"Want?!" he said. "What could I want?! I'm a robot, like the invisible boy told you. I have no feelings, no will, no desires." The lower part of his face moved as if to sneer. "I must say studying you all has been enthralling, but the Doctor need you all dead. Goodbye." Shadow looked at Omega, who was standing still behind the android.

"Omega, you don't agree with this do you? Surely you have a heart!" Omega just stared straight ahead.

"Silence!" Metal boomed. "Now you shall all die quietly! My sensors can't take anymore logicless babble."

"Fat chance metal head," Sonic said. "We aren't going down without a fight!" The nine GUN agents charged towards the robots. Metal gave another robotized sigh.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter." He pushed a button on his wrist. Instantly, electricity struck the attackers from the walls of the broken toilet. The volts immediately disabled their muscles, making them collapse in mid step. They were now completely helpless. "Did I forget to tell you, Rouge dear," Metal mocked, using a copy of the double agent's voice. "I told Omega to install shock sensors around the complex in case you betrayed us. My mistake!" He laughed again, this time using a recording of Eggman's insane victory cackle. He raised his cannon, still laughing. "Now, you shall all die."

_Bang!_

Metal stumbled, half of his spinal frame shattered by the shot. Omega stood with his arm raised, a look of sadness on his face overriding his unemotional robotics. Metal felt like he should be shocked, but he still felt nothing.

"Why, Omega?" he asked. "Why betray me, you brother?" Omega lowered his arm.

"I'm sorry," he said. His voice sounded human, not the artificial toneless sound of before. "What the Doctor is doing is wrong, and you aren't programmed to see it. But I can, and I must stop him." Then Metal made a sound. It was laughter, but it wasn't a copy of someone else. It was soft and almost intangible.

"You're so lucky Omega, even if you don't realize it." His face moved into what would be a smile if he had lips. "Maybe you are the better one of us after all." Then the remains of the metallic blue copy disappeared, teleported away.

In the depths of Dr Eggman's base, the Doctor and the two cloaked figures watched as the camera in Metal Sonic's eyes blotted out. Eggman muttered a series of elaborate and unrepeatable curses. The cloaked figures just stood still and waited for him to finish. After a few seconds, Metal's body appeared in a brief flash of light, collapsing from lack of energy. Eggman didn't even bother to look up, just ignored the robot altogether. Finally, the smaller figure spoke.

"It seems that your plan failed Doctor," he said bluntly. Eggman glared at him.

"The plan didn't fail at all!" he spat.

"No it didn't," he agreed. "Your troops did."

"I give him life and he betrays me! What type of a son does that?!" he was muttering to himself. The figure looked curious.

"Why do you call him your son? He is a robot, and should not have emotional attachments." He pointed to the remains of Metal Sonic. Eggman laughed.

"Not him you fool! Omega! Surely you are smart enough to figure out what's going on." The cloaked figure thought for a second, then got it.

"You don't mean…?"

"Precisely! A perfect copy, if I do say so myself. Metal Sonic's AI patterns are based off the same brainwaves." The taller figure clapped sarcastically.

"Brilliant work Doctor! Too bad your inventions failed, and now they have information from that white haired spy on us!" Eggman shook his head.

"Rouge knows nothing of importance, especially about you two. I suspected her from the beginning. This mission was a test, which she has failed miserably. Have no fear; she will be punished severely next time we meet. Now the only problem is coming up with a way to get rid of SPEED." The smaller figure held up his hand.

"That will not be necessary. Everything is nearly in place. All that remains is for the rest of the Seven to make their arrival." Eggman looked shocked.

"So soon?!" he exclaimed. "I didn't think the time was so close!" The figure nodded.

"All will come into place soon. All we must do is make sure the pieces are in position. You can handle that, can't you?" Eggman nodded.

"Compared with everything else I've had to do, getting him there will be no problem at all." The figure nodded.

"Good. Now all we must do is wait."

**Personally I think this is the worst of my endings yet. It's scrappy and need more which I can't think of. I've got a poll on my profile as to what to do next. Please use.**


End file.
